Egg Gear Solid
by Kurei Jikirin
Summary: Taking place between MGS2 and MGS4, this epic throws Shadow into the middle of an effort by GUN to combat the dyad of Dr. Eggman and Liquid Ocelot, who have their malevolent hands on a Robotnik-enhanced Metal Gear RAY. This is the story of a new weapon, Egg Gear.


"Keep your distance if you want to stay alive," the hedgehog snarled.

Imposing was the figure at the door, yes, but Shadow was not one to be shaken by a mere human, despite the fact these guys had abducted him under the cover of night, knocked him out for a good bit, and then held him in this featureless room for six hours without binding him or bothering to confiscate his green chaos emerald. With that time on his hands, Shadow had determined that his pitch-black cell had some form of chaos energy inhibitors, restricting him from utilizing the emerald on his person for escape, but that wasn't enough to indicate to him who his captors were. Heck, it could be Eggman, Eggman Nega, GUN, or even Metal Sonic betraying his master again!

Therefore, up until this point, Shadow was left to his own thoughts with no way to escape, sitting in a forsaken corner, only to be momentarily blinded by the reappearance of light and introduced to this silent, shaded character in the doorway. Leaving Shadow's threat without the entertainment of a response, the being glided through the entrance and calmly shut the door with a powerful, reverberating "clang!" Shadow was reduced to judging the location of his kidnapper by sound. The scoot of a chair, the shuffle of some documents, and then the click of an overhead lamp being turned—

Argh! Blinded by bright lights again.

"Sorry to bring you in this way, Agent Shadow," the man offered humbly. "But we're trying to keep this as top secret as possible, and we don't want the enemy knowing we're recruiting you."

Shadow rubbed his eyes, straining to coax his vision into focus. That voice… it was familiar… but the last time he'd heard it…

"Commander?" Shadow ventured.

"Yes, Shadow, it's me," the general of GUN verified. "Don't worry, you're not in hostile hands."

"I'm not sure if I should be grateful."

Like a reflection in a pool losing its ripples, the the visage of the commander came into focus and Shadow noticed the general was seated at a small, metallic silver table, waiting for him to sit down in the chair opposite him. A quick survey of the room revealed a large pane of one-way glass, somber concrete walls and flooring, and a modest lamp hanging by a cord from the ceiling. Whether he was about to be interrogated or briefed, Shadow was uncertain, but he knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant ordeal.

Politely, the general gestured with his hand and nodded toward the caged hog's designated seat. Shadow grunted as he got up and hesitantly pulled the chair out. While the faint smile on the commander's face was meant to assuage the hedgehog, considering the general was not in the practice of grinning often, his smirk only served to put the retired agent on alert.

"You guys have gotten some new toys since I left the force," Shadow remarked as he sat down, referring to the mysterious device that made the room chaos energy-proof.

"Yes, your usage of the chaos emeralds gave us some insight into how their energy could be controlled," the commander explained. "And contained."

"Hm. So, what planet-destroying disaster is happening now?"

The weird smile on the general's lips deflated.

"I'm afraid it's something that doesn't just concern our planet," the commander muttered grimly. He slid a few papers across the table for Shadow to scrutinize. To the untrained eye, the papers seemed to show a bunch of pictures of weird robots with foreign characters written all around them, but to the hedgehog who had seen writings and drawings like this before…

"These are blueprints," Shadow exclaimed in disbelief. "For a machine, no doubt, being made by—"

"Doctor Eggman," the commander affirmed. "But not exactly."

Shadow glanced up, perturbed.

"Not exactly? With all due respect, Commander, I spent quite a bit of time with the Doctor on the ARK."

The mention of these events caused the general to glare at the hedgehog. Shadow observed this and jumped to his point.

"I just mean that I would know a creation of his when I see one."

"I'm not saying it's not an Eggman robot," the commander said, easing his gaze. "But it isn't a robot of his entirely. You see, Shadow, we've—"

A sudden irritating ring took hold of Shadow's hearing, drowning out the commander's speech. He felt his left ear twitch as it perceived a noise that the eyes couldn't trace.

"Do you hear that?" Shadow inquired, hoping for proof of his sanity.

"Hear what?" the general barked, leaning forward, annoyed that he'd been interrupted in the middle of his well-rehearsed report. Realizing something, he raised his eyebrows and leaned back again. "Oh, that should be Campbell calling you on your Codec."

"My what?" Shadow yelled, struggling to hear the commander over the ringing.

"We, uh…" the commander coughed awkwardly. "Implanted a device in your cochlea, your inner ear, and injected you with some nanomachines while you were out."

"_What?" _Shadow roared, nearly leaping from his seat to dispatch the general.

"Take it easy, Shadow!" the commander yelled sternly, extending one hand to halt the hedgehog and holding the other on his gun holster. "Just put your hand to your ear and you'll get some answers!"

Shadow was ready to brawl, but like a child who's upset with their parent, he reluctantly obeyed. Instantly, the ringing was replaced by the voice of a man.

"Shadow," the pinched but authoritative voice uttered. "Can you hear me?"

"Uh… yeah," the stunned hedgehog responded. "I can hear you."

"Excellent. I was starting to think your Codec was malfunctioning. I'm Roy Campbell, former colonel and consultant for GUN."

"Former colonel? What did you do, blow up an island?"

"Stopped one from blowing up, actually. But you would know a bit about exploding islands, wouldn't you?"

The allusion to his past disquieted Shadow, but he ignored it and continued.

"Why are you contacting me? _How_ are you contacting me?"

"At the moment, we are speaking via Codec. It's basically a radio implanted in your ear that will allow us to speak privately."

"Implanted in my ear?"

"Well, that _is _oversimplifying it a bit. It's operating off of nanomachines in your body, making sure that everything said is completely secret. If you haven't noticed, you haven't audibly spoken a word since this conversation started."

Involuntarily, Shadow opened his mouth and moved his tongue. He was sure he'd been talking this whole time! Unless… this technology was really so advanced… he was speaking through the nanomachines.

"Ignoring the fact you guys violated my body to install some hardware," Shadow griped. "Would you mind telling me what you want from me?"

"Ah, right," Campbell began. "Well, in front of you, you should see some blueprints for a machine."

"Yes."

"This mech is called 'Egg Gear.'"

"So, this machine," Shadow pointed out. _"Is_ a creation of Doctor Eggman."

"Not exactly," the Colonel said, beginning his explication officially. "It's a new addition in a series of bipedal tanks known as Metal Gears."

"Metal what?"

"Metal Gear. You see, Shadow, there've been several of these things created in the past, each one more dangerous than its past incarnation. Every time, we've been able to neutralize the threat, but…"

The pause unnerved Shadow.

"But what?"

Shadow's voice jerked Campbell out of the past.

"But this time… things are different. The last Metal Gear, Metal Gear RAY, was stolen by a man called Revolver Ocelot. We've been searching everywhere for him, but he just disappeared off the globe until…"

"You found these plans hanging out in cyberspace."

"They were just carelessly dumped online! It's like it didn't matter to whoever made them if they were discovered or not!"

Shadow chuckled.

"That sounds like the Doctor alright," he cracked. "Always cocky."

"There are obvious signs of Eggman's work and Metal Gear RAY's design on these documents, but we couldn't trace the files back to the computer they were created on. GUN's handling the matter because of their experience in dealing with the scientist in the past. We think that Ocelot might be modifying RAY to become more powerful, to use chaos energy, with the help of Eggman, and if we don't find them soon—"

"Then there's a deadly super-weapon out there somewhere in the hands of two capable villains," Shadow surmised. "But why am I being brought in? I mean, how'd you handle these things before?"

As if the question was some terrible omen, Campbell fell silent.

"The agent we'd normally contact…" Campbell sighed. "Can't be found."

"The agent." Something about those words struck Shadow. Even without a real codename, just the knowledge that this guy had brought down several of these robots before made "the agent" seem like a formidable character to Shadow.

"Therefore," Campbell concluded. "We've come to you. You've already had involvement in battling the doctor and his machinations before. You're an obvious choice for a job like this. Will you help us?"

Shadow considered the situation for a split second.

"Yes, I'll help."

With a strange squeak, the Codec conversation was over. Realizing he'd dropped his head with his hand to his ear, Shadow looked up to address the commander… who had fallen asleep.

"_Commander!"_

In the time it takes to snap one's fingers, the general instinctively shot up, snatched his gun, and fired at Shadow, who, foreseeing this reflexive response, flew out of his chair as the bullet ripped through the air and past his head. The awkward silence that followed was especially strange for the general, who, just coming out of a dream, was remembering where he was and why he had just shot at Shadow. In a sense, the same could be said for Shadow, who also felt as if he'd just come out of a dream, but without the benefits of slumber.

Feeling embarrassed, both of them wrestled with the silence, struggling for something to say to stop it. Ultimately, it was the commander who defeated the silence by casually holstering his gun and standing up to speak.

"So," he coughed. "Do you accept the mission?"

Shadow waited for his muscles to relax before he answered.

"Yes," he answered. "I'll do everything in my power to help you guys take down Eggman and Ocelot."

The general gave a genuine smirk this time.

"Thank you, Shadow," he said and extended his hand to shake with the new recruit. Shadow returned the formality by taking the commander's hand, but left it to him to do the shaking.

"Now," said the general, releasing Shadow's hand and allowing his face to return to its normal sternness. "Let me introduce you to the other members of your team."


End file.
